What This Community Organizer Really Did

Most people have not heard of Saul Alinsky. He was a radical of the first order. His tactics, strategies, and thinking influenced a number of modern leftist politicians, including Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

According to the Washington Post, a group of Alinsky’s “disciples hired Barack Obama, a 23-year-old Columbia University graduate, to organize black residents on the South Side, while learning and applying Alinsky’s philosophy of street-level democracy.” In 1990, an article Obama had written on community organizing appeared in the book “After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois.”

What frequently is ignored in all of this is Alinsky’s book, Rules for Radicals. The book is an instruction manual for left wing agitators and breaks down the core components of community organizing. Both Clinton and Obama were students of the book. Clinton wrote a college thesis on the book. Obama lived the book, applying its principles to organizing communities in Illinois.

At a time when the left’s new slogan is “Jesus Christ was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor,” it is helpful to remember that Alinsky dedicated Rules for Radicals to Lucifer — that is, Satan. Alinsky considered Satan the first radical.

The opening chapters of Genesis make clear Satan was the first community organizer. He convinced Adam and Eve that the man put them down. To empower them, Satan encouraged them to eat the apple. The results speak for themselves.

Is ACORN Using Barry’s Lessons?

During Barack Obama’s stint as a community organizer, he worked for ACORN, the radical group that directly applies Saul Alinsky’s tactics to agitate for a more socialist America.

In 1996, when Obama received the communist New Party’s endorsement, a local Chicago socialist writing in New Ground, the newsletter of the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America, noted, “As the single 800 pound gorilla in the Chicago New Party, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for newcomers to participate except on ACORN’s terms. This will make it difficult for the New Party to have a life apart from ACORN.”

Barack Obama had, at the time, a very tight relationship to ACORN.

That makes this story from the Detroit Free Press all the more interesting. It turns out ACORN has been turning in “fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications.” The article quotes Kelly Chesney, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State’s Office, saying, “There appears to be a sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications . . . . And it appears to be widespread.”

This is not the first time ACORN has done this. Back in 2006, ACORN got caught on tape actively engaging on behalf of Claire McCaskill’s campaign in Missouri. With Barack Obama refusing to release his bar application, his college transcripts, and a host of documentation relating to his past, it is a fair question to ask if Obama ever encouraged ACORN to engage in nefarious voter registration schemes.

It fits with Saul Alinsky’s advice and it fits with ACORN’s pattern and practice.

Erick Erickson is the Editor-in-Chief of RedState. His RedState Morning Briefing stays ahead of competition by delivering breaking news at 5AM every weekday to an audience that includes everyone from grassroots activists to talk radio hosts, television pundits, and print journalists. Erickson also appears regularly as a contributor on Fox News and has a nightly radio program on WSB in Atlanta.